Container and Contents Indicators

Containment and insertion indicators tell the solver to put one piece of text inside another. Containment involves X surrounding Y (result = Y inside X), as in ‘Irish playwright holds party’ for SHAW contains DO = SHADOW; insertion means X being put into Y (result = X inside Y), as in ‘worker entering annexe’ for ANT inserted into WING = WANTING. In general, any term which suggests something being contained by something else is likely to be acceptable, although setters should avoid ones which are normally used only in a restricted context (eg ‘punches’, which relates specifically to piercing using a tool). Where the indicator is a verb, other forms are possible, such as the infinitive (eg ‘naughty to embrace king’ for BAD contains R = BARD). Note that a few verbs, such as ‘assume’ and ‘inspire’ can be used (in advanced crosswords) to indicate either containment or insertion (‘He inspired the fresh air’ / ‘He was inspired with ambition’). Setters should be careful when using certain past participles with ‘by’ – for instance, ‘Mary imprisoned by Elizabeth’ doesn’t imply imprisonment within Elizabeth.

Date last modified: 23/04/25
Recent changes: (21/12/24) added punctuates/punctuating/punctuated with, (16/02/25) added keeps/keeping/kept in check, stems/stemming/stemmed by, controls/controlling/controlled by, coats/coating/coated in, full of, (23/04) added clamps/clamping/clamped, instilled with.